Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Just the Beginning

Obamacare cometh. And I fear this is just the beginning.

Recently, a hospital in Pennsylvania decided to discontinue their obstetric care. As of March 31st, Windber Medical Center will no longer be in the business of delivering babies. Apparently, the behemoth that is the "Affordable Care Act" has made it nearly impossible for this small-town, local hospital to recoup costs associated with labor and delivery services.

Our government is effectively tying the hands of our medical care system. Rather than giving people better health care and more options, the opposite is happening. Of course, this is the only outcome we could have expected. Rationed care is never good care.

Our health care system was broken, but now it is destroyed. This is just the beginning.

I'm sorry, but with the political bent of that big city you've got near Newark, your only real option for liberty is to flee west and/or south. The mountains of Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee are good, Wyoming has always been a good bet, or perhaps Enola could use a new neighbor in Idaho!

As you indicate, it's just the beginning.My parents doctor "General Practioner". closed his office providing a 30 day notice to all his patients. This way the former patients could obtain their medical records, he's closing due to Obamacare. This doctor was a well respected doctor with all kinds of patients.

Where we live in rural TX the county hospital doesn't deliver either. You have to go 30 miles one way or 50 the other 2 hospitals that, will instead of 6 miles down the road...it's ridiculous. Not to mention the quality of rural care is not what it used to be.

Also worth noting was something my folk's dentist said. He told them that if Obamacare hits (obviously this was said awhile ago) that people will see a shortage of doctors. He and his fellow dentists are planning on retiring early to avoid it and he predicted that more will follow with less folks going into med school...get ready for it!

As an retired RN who used to work nursery/NICU, I can tell you that if a woman shows up at the ER at the hospital with delivery imminent, they will indeed deliver her in the ER. There is this law called EMTALA that guarantees it, & has guaranteed it for quite a few years now. As soon as mother & baby are stable, they will be shipped to the facility that is 10 miles away, but if the EMT's pick up the mom, & she is in active labor, they are required by policy to take her to the nearest hospital, not the nearest hospital with Labor/Deliver facilities. The ER docs will be doing a lot more.I do see some of the young docs just graduating from medical school opening up practices that are "cash only". - - they do not take ANY insurance, including Medicaid. From what they say, their office overhead is a lot lower, since they don't need all the insurance & billing people. A small bright spot in a dark sky, perhaps. - M

I understand that hospitals must deliver if a woman is in labor in the ER but if the only hospital that handles facilities is 50 miles away that makes it very hard for ladies to get in to see their ob/gyn for prenatal visits and delivery.

Your comment about EMT's taking mom and baby 10 miles down the road is laughable. Many rural areas are over 50+ miles from other hospitals. Many of us don't live in the city with hospitals spaced out every few miles.

A rural doctor told me he got out of delivering babies because of the malpractice insurance would run him over $200K a year...not worth it, so he's a GP. Sad but it's not just Obamacare that's hurting the medical industry.

The spokesman for Winber Medical Center making the announcement, noted that the nearest facility with obstetric services was 10 miles away. In a rural area, that might be laughable, but since WMC was the example, I felt it was a pertinent fact in the situation. I do not live where hospitals are 10 miles apart, either. - M

More doctors need to "rebel", as mentioned by anon 1/16 9:09. My chiropractor does this. He is not a part of any insurance company's "preferred plan". If your comany doesn't require him to jump through any hoops, he is happy to submit your claim & will refund you when the money is received or put it toward future visits. Other than that, he is "pay as you go"- a very reasonable charge of $25 per visit unless he needs to do x-rays or you need special rehab equipment. The guy actually charges less than my veterninarian (a field that's also getting muddied up by insurance!). He has a large and thriving practice and is much loved by his patients. I drive almost an hour to see him because he is both good at what he does, and honest. Wish more docs would take this stand!

I worked at a medical office that had a full time coding and insurance person, and one that worked half time to help process claims. The patients liked the convenience this offered them, and seemed to think the responsibility was the doctors to get the insurance company to pay them. All this did was create a disconnect between the patient and THEIR insurance company and it added to everyones medical bill; afterall, the people doing the insurance filing and fighting have to be paid. I remember, back in the stone age, paying the doctor and filing my own insurance. I fought my own battles if any, but seemed to not have too many issues. I did not go to the doctor for "little stuff" and my kids did not go for runny noses or any of the common childhood issues. I have been verbally dressed down by clients who felt "entitled" to do so because their insurance had not paid yet and they received a bill after 30 - 60- 90 days. I can not tell you the number of times the client received the check and the office did not get paid. As is the case most times, we create our own problems. What was a "service" of the doctors office staff, caused people to feel entitled. People chose jobs based on health insurance benefits and the cost of that benefit was unknown to them; this resulted in over use and the insurance company raising the rates, which the employer had to pay in one form or the other. Of course, the insurance costs reduce the employees wages whether they realize it or not. My husband has insurance through his work. We pay a monthly premium for the dependent coverage which is the same no matter how many dependents you have, spreading the wealth so to speak. Being frugal, we would rather have a policy that costs less monthly that has a higher deductible, but hubby's union always bargains for the lowest deductible they can get, $100. The result is that every month we pay far more for the pleasure of the low deductible we often do not take advantage of because we have not needed a doctor. Since this is a work benefit, our thoughts were that we could save for a higher deductible and pocket the money every month, and those years we did not use the doctor, we certainly would have come out ahead; those years one of us needed medical care, we would use our own money to pay the deductible. But the union and the employees as individuals prefer to not practice individual responsibility and choose to instead have the "insurance" of paying an extra hundred every month so they didn't have to pay an extra hundred in case they needed care. i don't understand this at all.We are reaping what was sown. Too bad it is probably not affecting those that voted for this bologna.Hubby and I also grew up as military dependents and he later served 24.5 years active duty. We are used to rationing and non existent care, socialized medicine at it's best is what we got. We were also subject to mass immunizations whether we were due or had them at our dad's last duty station 3 months ago, rationed dental care as well. It didn't matter if you could afford something, it just wasn't available. We now have Tricare standard and for the life of us, can not get an appointment at a military installation but must find a civilian doc, and the civilian docs do not want to mess with another government program. Thus, we are all ready familiar with what will soon happen to all.sidetracksusie

A reminder, most of america did not want this. The government powers ignored us and did it anyway. That in it's self was a bad sign and should have been a wake up call to the whole country. The government ignoring the people. None of what obamacare brings should be surprising to any of us and there is more bad circumstances to come which is just part and parcel of the lose of liberty. This is what I have been preparing for the last 4 years (the downfall of our system, I saw the storm coming in 2008). The only thing that will save us is another Great Awakening to God. God is the only one that can save us. We as a people have been passive far too long and have allow these great evils to happen. We have no one to blame but our selves.

The government is ruling us not governing, but we allowed it. The government is poisoning our air and changing the weather through geo-engineering, they are poisoning our food and water and they are forming death panels for old people and others they deem "unfit" to live (because they might have "low quality of life" if left to live), killing our unborn, indoctrinating our children and mind control of the masses through the controlled media, attacking our first amendment, and our second amendment and any other amendment they don't like. The brainwashed masses are going along with them. But, those of us who are not fooled, those of us who are not in the matrix are prepared to survive and thrive come what may.

This will be a very bad year for many of our citizens and it will keep getting worse the following years, the government seems to be setting up for another war to take everyone's mind off a bad economy. The media keeps saying how things are "good" and it's "turning around"; well people are going to stop believing that after a while when they are the ones losing their jobs and can't get another one. Americans are leaving the country by the droves, the last statistic I read gave a count of 3 million americans that have left the country in 2012 and more are planning to leave. My husband and I have our passports active and on standby.

Please, my fellow patriots continue prepping as best you can, learn as many skills as you can, do not be afraid, look to Heaven for your help. These are the times that will try men's souls, but we are prepared.

God save our great republic. Jesus is Lord and there is no other.

Enola, I have followed you since you began. You have been a sane voice in an insane world. May God bless you and keep you.

We have had no insurance for years...We have always been out of pocket and the cost of a dr. is WAY LOWER with OUT OF PAY....I asked why to a doc a while ago: NO PAPERWORK TO INS. THAT says he can charge more for insurance stuff.....WHAT????? THEFT by INS. CO. No wonder ins. is SO high....And, my chiropractor doesn't take ins either...Way better...

And, communism is right at the doorstep...if not already here..The Bible says that this will be in the end times...STRIFE,etc....satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy...and he is doing it right under our eyes....Love from NC

I worked in the healthcare field for 10 years, and now out for 6 years, on the fiance side and maternity units closing is nothing new. I know in the area I live near a large eastern city probably half the hospitals have closed their maternity units in the last 20 years.

The biggest cause of this is the liability insurance cost. Ob/Gyn have the highest insurance premiums of any specialty. This is not to doubt that the ACA might push a few providers over the edge but it's something the lawyers have been causing for years.

I share your sentiments but there is a silver lining...well kinda. I'm starting to see doctors in our area set up alternative pay as you go and co-op clinics. The pay as you go rate runs about $2 a minute with no rushing you out the door...you are the health care consumer (not the insurance company)...the co-op option runs about $2,000 per family. Pair this up with a very high deductible insurance plan and you're back in the health care driver's seat when it comes to your own body.

Those with medical training can quietly let it be known what they are willing to help with in the community. Barter. We did with a dentist. The only thing he asked was to pay the xray cost, his cost not the overhead. A family of 5, now has better teeth, ($14,000). A true blessing. It just takes some time.

Interesting that here in New Mexico, doctors are now beginning to advertise as 'custom' or 'consinage' (sp?) care doctors. They are not taking Medicare, Medicade or signing up for 'ObamaCare'. Pay a significant amount per year and you can have your own personal physician. More money (for them), less paperwork, no insurance plans and best of all, no government interfearance. Have to love the free market system .................Of course, the 'Free Shxt' folks are going to struggle but at this point, who's counting or caring?

The Affordable Care Act is a government project and will function exactly like one- it's TARFU,midway on the scale between SNAFU and FUBAR. There are a few "ways-out" in the program..you can opt out for economic reasons if your income falls within a certain range..I think if the cheapest insurance package is more than 8% of your income, you can just opt out. If the cheapest insurance is just half what my employer-provided is (I pay 20%-based on what I pay, it would be a touch over $4000 a year for a single person). If it magically got reduced by half through the Affordable Health Care act, two grand is still a big hit for many people's budget. Paying the fine for not having insurance would be cheaper-for a while..the fine increases each year you don't get insurance. I suspect the needle will slowly creep towards FUBAR as time goes on.

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About Me

I am a christian, conservative, survival minded, homeschooling,off-grid, independent, home-birthing, Proverbs 31, Titus 2 minded 40 year old woman. I live with my husband and five children in our solar/generator powered shop on 30 acres. We are homestead types who try to do as much as we can ourselves, but understand the importance of community.